Sunday, August 22, 2010

Image by cliff1066™ via FlickrI am so looking forward to the Reshma 2010 event tomorrow. (Gandhi, Reshma And Tornadoes) I did 400 push ups already in preparation. I will likely do more. It is good to see Arthur Schwartz as one of the listed names. Slowly but surely the Obama crowd is rallying behind Reshma 2010. A presidential campaign lasts months, but for a congressional race these final weeks are when the coalescing happens. It is now a sprint to the finish line.

Another person featured in that video is Jeff Kurzon. The first time I met Jeff was near the Gandhi statue in Union Square. I was not even aware there was a Gandhi statue there until that day. That was the summer of 2007 right before the walks for Obama. Well, Jeff asked for a Gujarati and he got one now: Reshma. (Reshma Is Gujarati Like Gandhi, I Am Bihari Like Laloo)

Crain's New York: An Insurgent's Long Shot: Last year, Reshma Saujani was no more than a foreign-sounding name on a long list of candidates who wanted to run for the seat on the verge of being vacated by Rep. Carolyn Maloney. When Ms. Maloney decided last August not to run for the U.S. Senate, the other would-be candidates dropped out in deference to the incumbent. Ms. Saujani, a 34-year-old hedge fund lawyer, stayed in. .... eliciting scorn from the city's Democratic political establishment, which sees Ms. Maloney as the unassailable matriarch of a district that she helped transform into a Democratic stronghold.... Ms. Saujani has eschewed the more traditional route of first running for a minor office and cultivating endorsements among labor and elected officials to build a base of support. ..... her fundraising prowess ..... “I think we need to have new people, fresh faces running for Congress,” Ms. Saujani says—”people who are passionate and energetic.” ..... Ms. Saujani's campaign has captured the attention of many, including Bishop Mitchell Taylor, the influential senior pastor of the Center of Hope International and the chief executive of the East River Development Alliance. He invited Ms. Saujani, just as he had Ms. Maloney, to speak to his small but fervent congregation in Long Island City. ...... On Jan. 14, 1973, her parents landed in Chicago wearing T-shirts and shorts, with $50 in their pockets. ...... a compelling political biography that has impressed wealthy Upper East Side donors, financial services executives and Internet entrepreneurs. She first demonstrated her fundraising skills at age 28, when she raised $1 million from South Asians on behalf of John Kerry's run for the presidency—an accomplishment that gave her access to Hillary Clinton, whom she supported in 2008. Ms. Clinton later offered her a job in the State Department as a senior adviser on South Asia, which Ms. Saujani turned down in order to run for office. ....... Maloney's $2.1 million in cash. ..... Of about 228,000 registered Demo-crats in District 14—68% of whom are white—37,529 voted four years ago. ..... her opponent has portrayed her as a creature of a greedy industry ..... One of her biggest supporters is Diana Taylor: a lifelong Republican, former New York state superintendent of banks, and the girlfriend of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ms. Taylor is part of a coterie of high-powered women who are advising Ms. Saujani and encouraged her to run on her corporate experience. ..... “She sees Congress as an entry-level job,” says one exasperated Democratic consultant. .... She was twice denied by Yale Law School before getting accepted as a transfer student. Becoming a member of Congress has also been a lifelong dream. If she loses, she says, she will begin her campaign for 2012. “We run the next day in the same race,” she says. “We start the next day.”

New York Post: The Underdog: 35-year-old Reshma Saujani, is generating an unusual amount of interest for an untested candidate ....Saujani, who has never served in public office, has become a darling among the city’s power brokers, including Maureen White, former national finance chair for the Democratic Party; Judith Dimon, wife of JPMorgan CEO Jamie; hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry; and Mayor Bloomberg’s daughter, Emma — all of whom have helped her amass a $1.2 million war chest..... Hillary Clinton, for whom Saujani once worked, gave her campaign an unofficial nod of approval..... Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, is even advising Saujani’s campaign after meeting her and being impressed with her go-getter attitude..... Saujani also has developed a cult following among the city’s burgeoning tech community, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook honcho Randi Zuckerberg and Gilt Groupe founder Alexis Maybank all tweeting her praises. High profile bloggers like Rachelle Hruska have helped generate buzz among the 20- and 30-something crowd that usually doesn’t follow local politics...... A practicing Hindu, she lives in an East Village rental, and is still paying off some $200,000 in student loan debts after putting herself through school. She works out at Equinox so that she can afford to cave to her favorite temptation: the black and white shake from Shake Shack..... “At age 28 I was one of John Kerry’s top fundraisers in the country,” Saujani said in an interview from her makeshift campaign office on 33rd Street and Madison Avenue. “It’s unusual for a young woman to be sitting with trustees who had been donors for generations. I had never asked anyone for a check before besides my parents.” ...... She’d be the youngest woman elected to Congress if she wins, as well as the first Hindu. She claims she was the first New York politician to come out strongly in favor of the Ground Zero mosque...... it’s when she talks about tech that she becomes most engaged....... “When I set out to run, one out of three of my friends was unemployed, laid off from law firms or media firms, and it wasn’t going to get better until 2013,” she said. “I believe people need to start their own companies. I’ve gone to tech meet-up after tech meet-up and asked people, ‘What is it that you need to start your next company?’ It’s that first $50,000 or $100,000 they need.” ...... Until now Maloney had no particular reason to acknowledge Saujani’s campaign, but after three months of nipping at her heels, Maloney agreed to a radio debate scheduled to air Sept. 7 on WWRL at 11 a.m....... “You don’t expend that political capital for name recognition. You do it to win.”